Moving On
by SunRae5
Summary: One-shot. After Hermione and Draco watch their friends and family beating themselves up over their deaths even years after it has happened, they decide to do something about it to finally help their friends move on.


_A/N: This story's been doing laps around my head for some time now so I decided to finally put pen to paper, or rather my fingers to the keyboard and get it out there. Please be warned that this story contains the deaths of some major characters (in the past) and addresses the issue of 'moving on' after the death of someone in what is hopefully a slightly more light-hearted way._

_Please enjoy. :)_

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><p><em>Moving On<em>

"They're not moving on." Hermione stated rather bluntly as she stared down at her two friends standing in front of her grave. While it might have been a rather morbid thing a couple of years ago, she was completely used to it now, as was her partner floating next to her.

"I believe you said that last year too." Draco stated, sitting cross-legged in the air as the sunshine shone right through him.

"And the year before that." Came another voice and they turned to see Severus Snape joining them as he contemplated his former students standing below him. "It really is a rather pitiful display of Gryffindor loyalty." He stated with a sneer and Hermione rolled her eyes. She had gotten used to the snark of the Potions Professor over the years and she knew well enough by now that he didn't really mean it.

"You should do something against it." And with that he was gone again, disappearing in a whisp of smoke and Hermione stared after him.

"I'll never get used to that, will I?" She asked Draco who shook his head.

"Probably not." He replied and he turned back to watch the scene below as his mother arrived to stand at the grave next to Hermione's, his own.

"Your father will be released from prison next year." Hermione commented as they watched Narcissa lay down flowers at her son's grave.

"Yeah, I know." He replied and watched his mother shed tears with sadness in his eyes. They decided that they had had enough of watching the people they cared for mourning for them so they floated off, settling in a tree in a children's park further in London.

"I agree with Uncle Severus, we should do something against their awful melancholy." Draco stated and Hermione looked up in surprise.

"But how? We're not even visible." She pointed out. It wasn't that she didn't want to help them to move on, it was simply that they weren't actually able to do anything against it.

Ever since they had died, they had been able to move freely between the 'Afterworld' as they had dubbed it, and the real world. They weren't ghosts per se, as they weren't visible to anyone but a few stray animals and Luna (for some absurd reason the girl was actually able to see and communicate with them), but were more like spirits. It had been mightily disconcerting at first but Hermione and Draco had adapted well to the situation and were actually relatively happy for two people who weren't able to walk among the living any more.

The problem being though, that their friends weren't. Ron and Harry were unable to let her go, as was the whole Weasley family and Narcissa, Pansy and Blaise still mourned for Draco. While they understood and appreciated that their friends were sad over their departure, they really wished that they would move on and actively rejoin the society around them, it was starting to worry the two spirits that their friends and family were so stuck in the past.

Draco and Hermione had died together, shielding Harry, Ron, Luna and Narcissa from a curse that had been flung their way. The curse had exploded and destroyed their magical shields, causing the walls to collapse on top of them.

Suffice to say, they hadn't survived.

It had been a strange moment, they had worked together for once, shared the same goal of protecting the ones that they cared for. Neither of them had missed the irony of the whole situation; that they had died after finally working together.

"All Hallow's Eve is coming up soon." Draco pointed and Hermione nodded thoughtfully.

"You think we might be able to become visible?" She queried, absently watching a leaf fall through her.

"It's as good a chance as any. But we have to do something. This is getting ridiculous." He muttered.

"We have two weeks then to figure something out." Hermione agreed and they vanished, with no one noting their absence but a small bird that trilled out in surprise when they were gone.

~.~.~.~.~

"I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner." Hermione said, looking down at herself with satisfaction. They were semi-visible, sort of opaque if one were to be more accurate. They were floating a good couple of centimetres above the ground and looked truly ghost-worthy.

"We always thought that they would move on by themselves." Draco pointed out and straightened his shirt.

Thankfully, they were able to change their clothes with a simple thought, as opposed to being stuck in their bloody and muddy clothes from the battle. Hermione's theory was that it was because they were technically spirits and actually dead as opposed to having semi-corporeal forms like the ghosts back at Hogwarts.

He doesn't really care much for the why they are able to do it, he's just happy that they are able to.

"Okay, let's do this then." Hermione sends him a blinding smile and he returns it. The past couple of years had been strange at best, but looking back now, she wouldn't exchange them for anything. In Draco she had found the perfect partner, first as a friend, then as a romantic partner. It was strange that they had only realised how compatible they were post mortem, but hey, who was she to complain?

The next five hours were spent floating around the Ministry party, attempting to find their friends within the large crowd of people. More than one person complimented them on their 'extraordinarily realistic' costumes and they were mightily amused by the fact. These were all wizards, technically at least some of them should have realised by now that they weren't wearing costumes.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" A snarl came from behind them and Hermione and Draco turned around in sync to see Harry standing there, his wand pointed at them as Ron stood next to him, his face beet red. Luna was also with them, her arm threaded through Blaise's, who was looking completely and utterly flabbergasted, and Pansy and Ginny had gone white.

Another reason for their shared amusement over the years, Pansy and Ginny had become close friends and Luna and Blaise were dating - they were obviously not the only ones who had gotten over the whole Gryffindor-Slytherin feud.

"And why are you dressed up like our best friends?" Harry's voice was filled with venom.

"Deceased best friends, Potter, deceased. You should come to terms with it." Draco stated rather calmly.

Blaise was scrutinising them closely now while Pansy was, ironically, looking at them as if she had seen a ghost.

"What?" Harry's wand dropped slightly lower.

"We. Are. Dead. Get over it." He turned to Hermione, "There, I said it. That should hopefully do the job."

"I don't think they're just going to be able to accept that we're dead just because you stated it." Hermione replied, her eyes twinkling brightly.

"Draco?" Pansy looked at him more closely. "Is that really you?"

"In the flesh." His eyebrows became furrowed. "Or not. Rather more like in the spiritual form."

"Draco?" This time Blaise choked out the words, staring at his best friend in complete and utter disbelief.

"Yes. For god's sake, can you say something other than my name? I know I'm popular and all but it's not exactly great for making conversation." Sarcasm leaked into his voice and Pansy rushed forward with a strangled cry, only to fall right through him.

She looked up at him in horror.

"Technically we are dead." Hermione decided to point out. "See, we're floating." She pointed down to the couple of centimetres beneath her feet.

"But how-? Why-?" Ron spluttered and Hermione smiled sadly at him.

"You're not letting us move on. You're keeping us here." She said softly. "Draco and I discovered, or at least hoped, that we would be able to become visible on All Hallow's Eve so that we can tell you to let us go."

"We don't have much time left." Draco looked at the clock. There were only a couple of minutes until sunrise and then the night would be over and they would go back to being invisible.

"We just wanted to say a couple of things to you lot." Hermione swallowed and then smiled gently. This was going to be the hardest part of the night. "Thank you for mourning us properly, for grieving. We led a great life and it was wonderful to see that so many people cared for us." Her hand became entwined with Draco's.

"We also wanted to say well done for all that you have achieved in the past few years, you've done some truly great stuff." Draco nodded at everyone present.

"And we want to also wish you the best of luck for the future, we'll be watching from the sidelines to make sure you don't do anything too stupid." Hermione grinned.

"But you also need to move on." Draco said, his expression becoming grimmer. "You lot are stuck reminiscing about the past and often missing great opportunities for the future. You need to stop doing that."

"We also wanted to say thank you to you all for being such amazing friends, for being the best people that we could have met. Thank you." Hermione nodded at them, tears forming in her eyes. They were getting the chance to finally say farewell too, something that they hadn't had the chance to do the first time around. Draco also nods at them and Hermione can see that his sentiments have reached Blaise and Pansy.

"Tell my mother that I love her and that I'm sorry for leaving so soon." He says quietly and Hermione grips his hand even tighter. She would never get this chance. The spell she had put on her parents wasn't reversed. Harry and Ron had decided that it wouldn't be fair to give them back their memories only for them to find out that their daughter had died.

"Bye." Blaise's voice was choked and Pansy started to cry. Ginny's tears were already streaming down her face and neither Ron nor Harry looked like they knew what to say. Luna stared at them sadly, as if she had always known that this day would come.

As the sunlight came up over the horizon, Hermione and Draco begin to fade away and the six of them are left to stare at nothing but empty space.

"Come on, let's go home." Harry finally states quietly and they all nod, apparating away.

~.~.~.~.~

"Daddy, why do we come here?" A small voice pipes up and Blaise looks down at his son and chuckles at his bored expression.

"We're here to visit some old friends." He tells him and Luna's tinkling laugh reaches their ears. Blaise looks over fondly at his wife and she smiles at him in return. They both know that it will be a long time before their son understands the significance of visiting graves.

"Hey Draco. Hermione." He crouches down in front of the two graves as his son runs off to go and inspect the beautiful flowers that are growing near the bushes at the side. "Luna and I came to say 'hi'. We brought Lysander along as well, but he's still a bit too young to really understand why we come here." He smiles fondly at the graves while Luna's hand rests on his shoulder. "We just wanted to tell you that Pansy gave birth to the twins and that all three of them are in good health. Ron's so proud of them all, although it was hilarious to watch Fred remind him that one day Rose and Hermione are going to be beautiful women and be bringing home boys. I think that nearly sent him into some sort of shock. Hugo's loving the two of them already though, unlike our own who doesn't really want to meet his baby brother." He looks up at Luna and she rubs her stomach absent-mindedly.

"Harry and Gin are doing well too, little Lily Luna's due next month but I'm sure that they'll also pop by before the day is up. I hope that you two are doing well." He gets back up and Luna entwines their hands.

They stand there for a couple more minutes, remembering how shaken up they were six years ago when Hermione and Draco appeared and then vanished and how they slowly, and not without pain, began to move on after that.

They haven't seen them since, but somehow, Blaise thinks, that means that the two of them have finally managed to move on too.

"Lysander Draconis Zabini, don't even try to eat those flowers." Luna's voice admonishes their son and Blaise throws one last look at the two graves with their own flowers in front of them and smiles as he goes over to where his wife is telling off his son.

In the distance, a small bird chirps in surprise.


End file.
